Japanese Language Placement and Homestays

Japanese Language Placement For the first two weeks at Obirin University, we were instructed to take a japanese language placement test both online and orally. Before arriving to Obirin, we were sent three worksheets: (1) Japanese Language Experience, (2) Purpose for participating in the Japanese Program/Expectations, and (3) an essay written in Japanese. Needless to say this was the unexpected start to an accumulation of worksheets in general. Whether it be for class or other announcements. I digress. The purpose of the second worksheet was to explain why we chose to study in Japan and what we planned on doing while here. Had I known that I would be answering this same damn question fifty million times just during my first month here, I would've made copies of that sheet and would have given it out to everyone who asked. Because my major, which is Behavioral Neuroscience (a fancy way of saying a BioPsych double major), many people here who are studying or other Obirin students do not understand why I would go through the trouble of immersing myself in a foreign culture whn it has nothing to do with my major. It only fulfills a diversity requirement set by Northeastern. I will be the first to admit, this trip has nothing to do with my major whatsoever, period. I just want to clear that up for the next tom, dick, or harry who asks me the same damn question again. (And it is a question that I can't escape especially since we spent the first two weeks on self-introductions in which we had to state our せんこう 「majors」.) Anyway, the reason why I came to Japan is because I have a strong interest in the culture and the language. I'm interested in its history and how it affected other countries, especially Korea, which is where I was born, and most importantly Japanese food. Also, as a child, I lived in Okinawa for a few years while my father was stationed on base. So I have always felt that apart from the US and Korea, Japan was at one point my home and I should try to get to know it better. It is as simple as that. Why does my major have to define my interests in life? Why should I be so boring as to only indulge myself in interests that only has to do with the sciences? I think it's best to broaden your horizons. Plus in a way, it was partially a test to see how well I would adjust. I mean, science is my strength, but learning languages is not really something that I'm terribly good at. It may take the same way of learning as in science, but there comes a point in science where you stop memorizing and start to understand how things work. When learning a foreign language you have no choice but to memorize everything and go over it over and over again. But to myself, I'm trying to prove that I can be adaptable. That I can be put into difficult situations and somehow learn how to work it through to the end, and for a future doctor in training I think it is an important lesson to learn. Reading about cases in textbooks and actually dealing with patients are two totally separate things. It's easy to read a case and give a probable diagnosis but if you are dealing with patients for the first time you will often be put in difficult situations and be presented with various types of problems. And to be a successful doctor you have to be able to improvise and cope with new issues reguardless of whether or not you want to deal with them. It is the same living in a new country with a totally different language. Unless you are fairly fluent, it's hard asking for the simplest things and communicating with a native speaker. You have to learn new ways to get your point across by either gesturing (one of my favorites) or trying to describe what you want with the words that you know. You have to improvise point and case. For the first worksheet, we had to state how long you have studied japanese and with what materials and if it was a classroom experience or self-taught experience. In my case, I only took one semester of Japanese at Northeastern. This counts as a full Japanese I course even though this class was merely four months long. It wasn't until I arrived later on in Obirin that most of my fellow りゅうがくせい (international students) had at least one year of japanese language education or more. So, needless to say, it was a bit difficult for me to start speaking japanese again. This, especially since I hadn't taken japanese class since about a year ago. Therefore, I felt like I was way behind everyone else. There was also nothing much that I could do except to build up my たんご (vocabulary) and work on my grammer. So when it came time for the proficiency test and for my scoring I wasn't too surprised that I was placed on borderline Japanese I and II. The Japanese classes at Obirin, which I learnt later on, expect that you know much more Japanese than is required back in the states for the same level. For instance, when I finished Japanese I at Northeastern, I just finished learning -て form for verbs. It's not until Japanese II that you learn informal forms of verbs and informal forms of adjectives. Here at Obirin they expect you to know all that before you even place in Japanese II. Therefore, I was expecting to go back to Japanese I and learn hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji all over again. I was really dreading it because at Northeastern I would not have been able to transfer that credit because it only counts as Japanese I even though it is more advanced than Japanese I. Luckily, after my oral interview, I was told that I would be placed in Japanese II. I was so relieved. I just didn't want to have to go through two months of the same japanese I had learnt only to leave short of the semester and not learn anything new. I was told before I left that Japanese II is an equivalent to Japanese III back at Northeastern but is only counted as Japanese II. In other words, what you learn in II is what you would learn in Japanese III. I partially want to take Japanese III during my spring semester just to see if it really is just like the Japanese II class here. It could actually work out well for me; considering the fall semesters here end towards the end of January and I will be missing out on some japanese. I find that part of the reason why the Japanese classes here are so effective is because they test you everyday. I'm not joking, every damn day there's some type of test whether it be a vocab test on 100 words, a kanji test on 56 kanji, and a random grammer test here and there. I've lost count on how many tests I've taken this past week. This is both good and bad. Testing everyday means you will look over the material everyday and really learn the material. It's also useful that we can use our japanese in our everyday doings like going to the restaurant. The bad part is I have hardly anytime to think or really sleep. My evenings are spent going over vocab, vocab, vocab, and grammer. I think my head is going to explode. Oh and I learned how to say my brain hurts in japanese since I kept saying it in class today and my japanese student helper was curious as to what I was complaining about: ずつういたい。 My friend Stephanie has a homestay that is located in Hashimoto which is not too far from where I live in Machida. Her host family owns a sushi restaurant and not only does she get to eat their really good cooking (i've been there a few times) she has the benefit of learning japanese one on one with natives all the time. Though it is extremely useful to have homestays I opted out of the homestay option for two reasons: (1) I'm a girl and I've lived out of my parents house for these last four years and (2) I just can't take Japanese all the time. I have Japanese classes everyday and twice on tuesday. If I had to go home and be taught more Japanese my head would definitely explode. The first reason is not because I'm trying to be sexist or anything, but I was told that with certain homestays, girls were not allowed to be out past 7pm. Homestays require other people's rules, ways of living, and a compromise on your privacy. Japanese people do not have the same ideas of privacy as we do in the States. For instance, if my room is closed I don't feel comfortable with people coming in to move my stuff and clean my room (not even my mom). This happens quite often in a homestay I was told and a few of my friends had some difficulties at first adjusting to it. The bottom line is: if you want to learn japanese day in and day out stay with a host family but if you are already pretty much independent then living in an apartment is your best option.